Almost a third of all schools in Australia responded to an invitation to express views about how Australia's schools might be made more effective. This report presents the views that schools should have a full-blown view of what Australia wants for its children and youth, and they should be concerned with personal and social as well as intellectual development. Schools should set high but realistic demands for students and find ways to compare students with their own past performance in pursuit of "personal bests." The curriculum should have personal relevance for the students and be broad and balanced. The key to an effective school is seen to be its staff, focused on learning, concerned with individual students' needs, and engaged in their own professional development. Local schools should also have more say than at present in decisions about staffing. Eight chapters comprise the book. Chapter 1, "The Effective Schools Project," describes the ministerial initiative, national consultations, responses to the project, and structure of the report. Chapter 2, "Keys to School Effectiveness," deals with an overview of the research and Australians' view of an effective school. Chapter 3, "The Curriculum in Effective Schools," examines the questions of control, focus, structure, content, implementation, and outcomes. Chapter 4, "Staff in Effective Schools," looks at teachers and teaching and school organizational culture. Chapter 5, "Parents in Effective Schools," covers parent involvement, support, influence, and training. Chapter 6, "Students in Effective Schools," describes purposes for students, experience of the school environment, and relationships in the school. Chapter 7, "From School Effectiveness to School Improvement," examines decision making, resources, and priorities in relation to school improvement. Chapter 8, "Searching for Quality: A Summing Up," investigates national scope, local focus, a basis in research, the contribution of practice, perspectives of research and community, and some implications of the findings. Each chapter uses tables and figures to describe the data of the research. The appendices provide the response form and patterns of responses to the survey by states and territories. (Contains 210 references.) (RR)